Only One Soul Lives
by CanIHaveAHug
Summary: Toothless and Hiccup were without a doubt the most inseparable pair Berk had ever seen. Their bond was thought to be invincible. Unbreakable. Eternal... But how easily that is changed when a strange attack on Toothless seemingly causes a severe case of amnesia. One day, Hiccup is offered a way to return the memories. But is the price really worth it?
1. Remember

**a/n Hullo! I watched HTTYD 2 some days ago, and since then the HTTYD page of fanfictions has practically become my home-away-from-home. You people are absolute geniuses! ;) **

**Anyway, I thought I'd try my own hand at it, so voilà! **

**PS: I have never read the books and I can't remember everything from the TV series, so if I make some ridiculous mistake, then please don't slap me with a smoked eel. **

Chapter 1:

Astrid could tell that Toothless missed Hiccup.

They weren't obvious signs, he wasn't trying to hurt her feelings after all; but she could see them in subtle ways. A grain less enthusiasm, a tug of reluctance to fly farther out to fill the maps…

Astrid respected that. She knew how close Hiccup and Toothless were, and replacing the partner… well, seeing how she herself was with Stormfly, she knew it wasn't the same.

She pats Toothless. "We better get back. You seem sort of tired." She says gently.

Toothless bobs his head in understanding, and makes a smooth U-turn.

Like most rides, Astrid expected a boring, uneventful ride home. She was disappointed.

Just as the sun was dropping below the horizon, Toothless suddenly rumbles with agitation and makes a sharp lift, flying above the clouds.

"Toothless?" Astrid asks, mystified. "What's wrong?"

The Nightfury does not answer. He begins throwing his head side to side, eyes closed, as though trying to shake off a headache.

Astrid's eyes gasps. _This is what happened when the Bewilderbeast was taking control of Toothless the first time! _She thought.

"Three of these guys in one year?" Astrid mutters, "You've got to be kidding me." She bonks Toothless on the forehead. "Toothless, down. We have to get you to Hiccup."

The dragon shakes his head.

"Toothless… _down_."

"Sorry," A voice states apologetically, "But I can't allow that."

Astrid swivels around, making a grab for her knife. But the stranger was faster.

"Grab her."

Before she knew it, thick, scaly claws had grabbed her hands, pulled them behind her, and had her wrists in an iron-like vise. The creature, a dragon presumably, pulls her off of Toothless' saddle and she cries out as pain explodes in her twisted shoulders.

"Silence." the same voice commands.

Astrid looks up quickly, trying to ignore the black dots now floating in her eyes. A strange woman with gold hair braided with glimmering beads stands before her on a pure white Deadly Nadder, a brown, woolen cloak wrapped around her shoulders. Her face holds empty emotion as she holds out a crooked shepherd's staff…

Drowsiness begins to tug at Astrid's mind, and although the pain in her body would not fade, darkness began to close in around her.

At the last moment, the clouds open up beneath her, and she catches sight of Berk, just below.

Summoning the last piece of energy in her dying consciousness, she opens her mouth, and screams.

"HICCU-U-U-UP!"

The chief of Berk almost lost his right hand.

_Thank the gods,_ Hiccup thought with a sigh as he retracted his burnt hand from the bucket of ice cold water. _Otherwise I might've become a limb reversal of Gobber. _

As he wrapped the injury with some bandages, he sees Eret coming by with Skullcrusher at his side. In another time, Hiccup would probably have whipped out his flaming sword Inferno if he saw Eret. However, the former dragon trapper had turned over a new leaf. Sure, he still wore his woolen clothes and a knife behind his back, but now, he was one of the best disciplinarians at the Dragon Academy. Well… a quote in quote, 'disciplinarian.'

"Morning, chief!" he greets, leaning against the doorway.

"Hey, Eret." Hiccup says absentmindedly, wondering whether or not Astrid's voice had been his imagination or something.

Eret gives him a look. "You alright? Sound a bit distracted."

"Hm?" Hiccup looks at him. "Oh, yeah, I guess I'm just… worried about Toothless."

"_Just_ worried. Uh-huh." Eret says, unconvinced. His eyes wander to Hiccup's riding outfit that was currently hanging on the wall. "Well, it seems you don't plan on riding any time soon."

Hiccup glances at it. It was true he wouldn't be able to take the last lap around the island tonight with Toothless. In fact, he hadn't ridden with Toothless for fun in a while. It always made him feel weird, leaving Toothless everyday with Astrid, and going about the day with a regular wool shirt and leather pants. His upper body felt a bit empty without the armor. "Just a few flaws I wanted to fix up." He lied.

"Mm." Eret says. He straightens up and pats Skullcrusher's head as he turns around to leave. "Ah, well. I just wanted to tell you that I heard Astrid calling for you. She sounded kind of mad."

Hiccup stiffens. "Uh… yeah, about that. Eret, would you do me a favor and check on her for me?"

Eret turns his head and raises an eyebrow. "Why don't you? She's _your_ girlfriend. And _she's_ the one _calling_ for you."

Hiccup gestures to the partially heated slab of metal on the anvil. "I would, but Gobber's out right now, and if I don't finish this project for one of the villagers, then… well…"

Eret sighs. "Fine, I'll find her and bring her here."

"Thanks, Eret." Hiccup smiles.

The former dragon trapper nods, and once in a clearing, jumps onto his dragon. "Come on, Skullcrusher. Better go find Astrid."

Skullcrusher moans.

"Yeah, yeah," Eret assures. "We'll stop by the beach for fish later."

As the two fly into the slowly darkening sky, Hiccup watches, and is hit with a sense of longing and wistfulness.

When Hiccup first became chief, he had promised to maintain at least the lap around the island at sunset with Toothless every night. But it was a weak wish. How long has it been since he and Toothless have gone out and explored the lands beyond the map together? Or how long has it been since they just went out for fish? The only times they ever rode together these days were when Hiccup needed Toothless—or any dragon, honestly—for chiefing.

Hiccup shakes his head, and returns to the furnace. He would have to figure it out another day.

But of course, that's exactly what he had thought to himself yesterday.

_There was fire everywhere. The inky night sky was now stained with huge, roaring flames. Black smoke poured into the air, making it hard to differentiate smoke from cloud. _

Toothless shakes his head. The back of his head throbbed and his vision was fuzzy.

_A pure black dragon creeps toward him. But he feels at peace. Excited, actually. It was his mother. She towers over him, and says, 'Open up now.' _

_He grins, and gets a mouthful of regurgitated fish. It tasted good. 'Thank you, mama."_

Painful sensations of burning that a dragon shouldn't be able to feel crawls on his skin.

"_Mama! Papa!" he wails, running between the burning buildings. "Where are you?!" _

_He screams as a door suddenly bursts to bits, flames white hot, licking the ground at his feet. _

No… _No_… The Nightmare lumbers towards him. Toothless attempts to dodge the clawing from Nightmare, but ends up with the stinging of messy cuts on the side of his neck.

"_Alright, remember what I've taught you, my boy." His father says, lifting his long, majestic wings. He always looked so heroic when he did that, especially on the edge of the cliff as he was now. The Nightfury youngster absolutely adored him. "Ready?" _

_The little Nightfury nods eagerly, rearing up with a determined expression._

"_Alright then… Go!" _

_The child jumps, and quickly flaps his wings. He shoots upward, then with a quick flip of the tail wing, curves to the left. He laughs with joy, and flaps once more. Wind is whistling past his face, the sky so blue above him. He just felt so… so… _

Agony washes over Toothless' mind. His vision goes red, as though another force were trying to punch his sanity right through his skull. Toothless weakly tries to kick off the larger dragon and crawl away, but to no avail. With a guttural laugh, the Nightmare mercilessly tears a claw across the Nightfury's backside.

_Trapped. He was trapped. The trembling boy had fallen on his bum in fear, his weapon long lost to the monstrous creature of heat. He shuffles backwards, his mind too paralyzed to do anything more. _

_Chuckles emit from the glaring beast. A vague figure begins to walk through the flames. _

"_Papa…?" he breathes. Trembling, he stands. "Papa! Papa, I'm here!" _

_Suddenly, a hand clamps around his mouth, and throws him out of range. A shadow stands over him, separating him from the wall of danger. For a single moment, he believed it was his father, coming to his rescue, and grins wildly. "Papa! Papa, you're—"_

"_Run, boy!" a raspy voice commands. The boy's heart grows tight as he looks up. It wasn't his father. It was his beloved mentor, Professor Carver . The frail, ill-stricken man's chest was bobbing up and down just to keep upright, yet he stood between a demon and its victim. "Go!" he insists._

**No**. He didn't want to remember. He didn't want to remember this.

_Free. He had felt so free. But in the end unfortunately, the tiny Nightfury ended up crash-landing. His father had a good-natured laugh about it. "Looks like we'll need to work on your landing, yes?" _

_He nods vigorously, and a sharp pain hits the bruise on the ear. His mother growls warningly. "Don't move so much, son. You'll hurt yourself more." _

_The child mutters a complaint, but lies down. Mother nods her approval, and then leaves the cave. "I'll be back with lunch." _

"_No hidden eel guts in the fish this time!" Father calls after her. _

"_I know, no eel guts!" Mother giggles as she flew away to the ocean. _

_Father chuckles, and then puts an arm around his son's shoulder. "A-a-a-ah… you did wonderful flying today, son. You should have seen yourself! Fancy spins, high speed, and excellent turns! You did it all, my boy. And at such a young age, as well!" _

_The youngster blushes. "Father, don't. You're just saying that." _

_Father looked a bit offended. "I'm not! You're a prodigy flier, son. I felt it from the day you hatched, and I've seen the proof today." He stares lovingly at his son. "I'm going to teach you everything I know, my boy." _

Don't bring this back.

"_Take the book, boy!" Carver cries, throwing the worn, leather-bound book at his apprentice's feet. "Go! Escape! There is a boat in the moor!" _

_The boy did not hesitate. Snatching up the old journal and stuffing it in his coat pocket, he turns around, and makes it down 15 feet before he stopped, and turned around. Tears dripped down his face, mixing with the ash on his cheeks. "Sir… Carver, I can't… I can't leave you." _

_The teacher looks back sympathetically. _

Stop. Please…

"_And after my days are done, you shall inherit my gift…" Father says softly, nuzzling his son's nose, "You will be the greatest Protector that dragons have ever seen." _

"_As if, father…" the son scoffs, "I will never be able to become someone greater than _you_." _

_Father smiled at him. "Yes, you will. And I absolutely know…" _

"…_that you will make me proud." Carver whispers. "Now run! RUN!" _

"Stop," Toothless whimpers, covering his head with his trembling paws. "Stop. I don't want to remember."

The girl, face cloaked in the shadows of night gestures to the Nightmare, who backs away. She then kneels before him, her eyes stone cold. Her lips curl into a smile, but it was unlike any smile he had ever seen on a human. It was beastly, vengeful. And so filled with hate, lava could've spilled out.

"That's too bad." The human female drawls, "Because_ I_ want you to remember."

She holds out her palm again, glowing that horrendous scarlet...

"Toothless!"

Everything goes black.

**a/n I hope you enjoyed! REVIEWS ARE APPRECIATED!**


	2. Scale

Chapter 2:

"Toothless!" Hiccup yells, jumping off Stormfly and onto the cove ground.

The stranger glances at him, but Hiccup only startled her. The red glow in her palm strikes Toothless, bouncing him 10 feet away, crashing into a boulder.

"No!" Hiccup screams in anguish. In a second, he has Inferno unsheathed in his hand, and runs for his fallen best friend.

But almost immediately, a white Nadder and mottled green Nightmare bar the way with their wings. They screech a warning, but right now, dragon or not, Hiccup didn't care. With a roar, he swings Inferno at the Nadder, who leaps back in surprise. With his way clear, he runs toward the stranger who was once more crouched over Toothless with that ominous crimson light in her hands.

Without hesitation, he swings the sword, ready to lop off a body part. The stranger rolls away, and produces a small dagger, shock evident on her face.

For second, it rattles even Hiccup. Why is he suddenly so violent? He's never made Inferno for actual maiming, just… intimidation and distracting rouge dragons.

Then he hears Toothless' moan, and remembers: this girl kidnapped his girlfriend, _and_ his best friend. She also looked like she was torturing him for a good amount of time, and was about to kill him.

Anyone who does that in a square of one hour didn't deserve mercy.

He prepares to attack again, but in a flash, she suddenly throws her arm up, and is pulled into the sky by the enemy Nightmare.

Hiccup snarls in a very uncharacteristic way, and turns to his friends. "Snotlout and Eret go after the girl and her dragons. Fishlegs, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, go to the village, and get a cart and some rope. We're going to carry Toothless back with our dragons."

The gang shakes off their shock of seeing their chief in his violent frenzy, and shoots off to do their jobs.

Hiccup takes a deep breath to calm himself, and sheathes Inferno. Toothless was bleeding, but he seemed alive. Astrid seemed in better condition, thanks the gods, and was getting up slowly. He streaks over to his girlfriend, helping her up. "You okay?" he asks as they shuffle back to Toothless. "Is… Are you hurt anywhere?"

Astrid shakes her head gratefully. "No, I'm fine. I think Toothless is the one you should be worrying about though."

Hiccup nods grimly. "I guess… You sure you aren't hurt?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Hiccup smiles a little, and tears off some fabric from the hem of his shirt. He quickly dips it in water, then sprints to Toothless and dabs at the wounds, cleaning off as much blood as possible.

The Nightfury hisses weakly in pain, and cooed his suffering.

"I'm sorry bud." Hiccup murmurs, hating every moment that he caused a hiss of pain from his friend. "But don't worry, we'll fix you up soon."

Toothless groans, his eyes cracked open just a tiny bit, staring at nothing.

"Soon…" Hiccup assures him. "I promise."

The now dully glowing, green eyes that Hiccup had admired for 5 years slides its view to his face, and for a split second, a shard of terror stabs his heart.

Toothless didn't seem to recognize him. In fact, he seemed to see Hiccup as an enemy, narrowing his pupils, and a soft growl rumbling in his throat as he feebly attempts to bat at Hiccup with his paw.

He's just got a headache, Hiccup told himself. That's all, his vision is cloudy and he can't see properly.

This of course, was also what he thought when the Bewilderbeast that attacked Berk had taken control of Toothless. He had managed to pull Toothless out of that one, but he wasn't sure he could do it again.

He had heard from stories that some best friends can just begin to distance over long periods of time. He had never believed it would happen with him and Toothless, but he knew that with him being so busy, and rarely seeing each other except at dawn and dusk… things, in the tiniest way perhaps, had changed between them.

A Nadder cry rings through the air. Stormfly, who Hiccup had assumed was flying around the cove to guard it, appears next to them.

She shuffles her wings and seems to glare at Toothless with slit eyes, which was ridiculous of course.

Hiccup puts it off, and turns to Astrid. "So, care to tell me what happened?"

Astrid shrugs. "There's not much to tell. We were just flying back home, then Toothless starts acting funny like his mind was under control again. I scream for help, then that… girl and her dragons knock me out and I don't know what happened after that."

Hiccup sighs. He had hoped for more info than that, but it was alright. They could figure this out when they caught that intruder.

And speak of the devil… The gang and their dragons appear out of the trees. Fishlegs and the twins with a large cart hanging from between the dragon's claws, and Eret and Snotlout with… nothing.

"Let me guess," Hiccup says, a hard edge unconsciously put in his voice, "you lost her?"

The two boys gulp.

Toothless moans, and Hiccup snaps out of his anger. "Never mind that, let's just get Toothless to Gothi. Fishlegs, get the wagon over here. Stormfly, I need you to move your wing under Toothless like this…"

#####

_You guys think Toothless is going to be okay?_ Meatlug thought to her friends worriedly as they flew across the sky with their riders atop them.

Dragons. Too lazy to make a common language, so they settle for telepathic signals that aren't exactly words, but emotions that sort of piece together the idea of what they want to convey.

_Sure. The guy's tougher than me, and that's saying something. _Hookfang shrugs, careful not to shake the cart hanging from his clawed feet that was also carrying his good friend, the Nightfury.

_Ugh, you're worse than your human rider._ Barf thought with disgust.

_Tell me about it. _Belch grumbles.

_Guys seriously! _Meatlug scolds._ Toothless is really hurt! I've never seen him beat up so badly!_

_Yeah… _Stormfly mutters._ Seems kind of weird, doesn't it?_

_What? _Her fellow dragons question._ What's weird?_

_The Nightmare that attacked him barely looked much bigger than you, Hookfang. _Stormfly says slowly, as though still trying to decide whether or not to continue. _And no offence, but Toothless has taken you down plenty of times without getting a scratch. _

_Has not! _Hookfang argues.

_Yeah he has. _Everyone else states.

Hookfang shuffles uncomfortably_. Fine, maybe he's won a few scuffles. He was probably just off his game today. _

_There's a bruise on his head. _Meatlug notes_. So maybe the human attacker hit him in just the right spot to rattle him. _

_Or maybe magic? _Belchoffers.

_That girl __**did**_ _look pretty magical. _Barf adds.

Hookfang rolls his eyes. _Magic isn't real, idiots._

Stormfly however, seemed to consider it and gave the dragon version of a scowl._ Maybe… _

_If you don't' mind us asking though, _Barf says,

_Why does it matter __**how**__ he got hurt? _Belch asks_. He got hurt, so we fix him. _

_That's the important thing, right? _Barf says.

Stormfly growls._ It's just… I'm worried about what that girl __**really**__ did to him. When I flew down to Toothless after that girl ran off, he didn't really… well… _

_Didn't what? _Meatlug asks.

_He just didn't feel like __**Toothless**__. Stormfly mutters. _

_What do you mean? _

_Honestly, I don't really know. _Stormfly admits._ When I saw him, I just got this…__**ringing**__ in my head that this __**wasn't**__ Toothless. _

_Well, what about now? _Meatlug gestures to the cart.

Stormfly shrugs._ Fine now. I guess._

_Then let's just focus on getting him to the human healer and see if she can do anything for him. _Meatlug says.

The others nod their agreement. But Stormfly didn't think Gothi could do anything for him.

Why?

She thinks back to the few lines of conversation that they had Toothless was first being lifted into the cart, and then into the sky.

_Home… Going… Home… _Toothless muttered.

_Yes, we're going to take you back to Berk. To home. _Stormfly coos.

Toothless seems to grimace, and at first Stormfly thought it was because of the wounds._ Toothless? Toothless? Ga-a-ah… Just… try to endure it for a bit more, we'll get you fixed up as soon as possible. _

For a moment, the Nightfury doesn't answer, and Stormfly assumes he has gone unconscious. But then, she faintly hears the river of questions he repeats over and over.

_What… is… Berk…? Who… are you…? Who… is… Toothless?_

#####

The girl searched the cove, eyes keen. One scale, that's all she needed. Was that too much to ask?

Her Nightmare caws from behind a boulder. He gestures with his clawed foot, pointing at something.

"Found something, Coal?" the girl questions, running over. Coal shuffles to the side with a proud grin on her face.

The girl's eyes catch something small and black, and for a second her heart races. Yes! She found one! She crouches down on the ground to retrieve it…

"It's a pebble." She states bluntly. She drops it with a sigh, and rubs Coal's nose, who was looking very ashamed of himself. "It's alright, man. Easy mistake to make from your angle."

The Nightmare still coos his apologies, and continues his search. A second later, Luna, her snow-colored Nadder bounds over to her, and begins nudging her to the pond edge.

"Something's in the water?" she guesses. Luna nods.

The girl quickly sheds her wool cloak and leather boots, revealing a lean, agile 19 year old girl wearing a simple, white cotton shirt and pants. She dips into the water, vision slightly warbled. She feels something shoots past her head, and stick into the squishy mud ground a few feet in front of her.

A Nadder spike. She darts towards it, and searches the wet sand around it with her fingers. Finally, her palm brushes something flat, thin, and impossibly black. Her fingers close into a fist around it, and she springs to the surface, taking a gulp of precious air.

She paddles to her loyal companions, and after shaking off as much water off as she could, finally opens her hand.

Luna and Coal peer over her shoulder to look at it, and the girl's face break into a wild grin.

Splattered with a few wet grains of sand and tiny pieces of algae, was a single, Nightfury scale.

One scale. 17 minutes.

It would be enough.

#####

**A/N Second chapter! Hope you liked it! Please review if you have time!**

**PS: I know there weren't any break lines on the first chapter, sorry about that. If there aren't any breaklines on this one either, then… um… I don't' know. How do you write the breaklines and make sure they stay there when you upload? Plez help? *puppy eyes***


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